Parker's Blog

Enough with the weighty posts. I've been slacking on photos. Which is, after all, what I'm here for. Since I last touched base I was in the Houston airport pondering what the next 12 hours could possibly look like. I was on a 10 hour layover coming back from a wedding, I had no way to get in touch with the van crew who were racing to pick me up in Cancun, and I was told, lovingly, by the check in lady in Hawaii that "You may be denied entrance into Mexico once you land" because I failed to have an exit flight from Mexico.

Tensions were high. But, two weeks, and some clever white-lies on customs forms later, brings me here to Honduras. The crew picked me up in Mexico as planned and we crossed the border into Belize two days later. Since then things have been going great.

We lapped through Guatemala to Honduras in order to catch Aidan's close friend who is working at a language school here. As of Wednesday, we'll be mobile again. Backtracking up to Guatemala and back down through El Salvador and the west coast of Honduras.

Enough talking. Here's what the last two weeks have looked like:

(side bar, these are in no particular order)

2 or 3 days after arriving in Belize we met Willow. She’s an English pub owner who recently bought an island seven miles off coast of Belize (for a very reasonable price). during breakfast one day we struck up a conversation and she invited the crew to her island to snap some photos. If budget allows, the building pictured here will soon be a hostel.

Our boat captain, Breeze, had a tendency to drink. He was a few deep when we first hopped on the 12 ft outboard that took us too the island. I asked one of the locals about Breeze they said "He loves the drink, the sign of a good captain"

Another view of the Palapa

Sunset at the Palapa

The neighbors.

Aidan printing off a portrait for a little girl in Belmopan, Belize's capital.

For $1.50 there was no way I wasn't gonna stock up on this rum heavy pre mixed gold. Turns out it tastes like rubbing alcohol and air-fresheners, it's worth every penny.

A step outside of our home in Honduras. Gun-shots are commonly heard, local murder is a regularity, and corruption amongst government officials of any kind, is expected. But damn if this country isn't, astoundingly, beautiful.

Looking up the hill in Cofradia, Honduras.

A Local park in Cofradia,Honduras. An official was fishing for votes during an upcoming election so he put a 40 ft strip of sidewalk down near this soccer field, promising more infrastructure in the city. Immediately following his nomination, construction was stopped. apparently no one here was surprised.

While in Cofradia we had an opportunity to teach for a day at the Cofradia Bilingual School. Here's Madison showing the kids some photo tricks.

Aidan and some 7th graders lining up a shot of me.

Some of the younger kids, CBS is a full K-8 school.

Showing the kids a webisode we put together.

I had to include on still from the wedding, Josh & Marie at their reception.

Corozal, Belize.

This photo was taken on their 33rd independence day at 5 AM, I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk. There were already people in the streets partying.

Local guy who also happened to be up at 5 am. We watched fisherman leave the harbor as he told me about Belizian history. Lucky for me, english is everyones first language there.